Connecticut’s Department of Labor hosted a breakfast seminar entitled, “Cyber Security- What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You” on Thursday February 21st at their office in Wethersfield. The seminar was attended by professionals from the healthcare, banking, legal, construction, IT services and government industry sectors.

Capital Community College Assistant Professor of Networking and Cybersecurity, Saaid Elhadad, was the featured speaker. The three hour session flew by as Professor Elhadad offered suggestions about everything from best practices in setting up firewalls to whether you should accept a free USB drive from a trade show … you shouldn’t.

Professor Elhadad recommended implementing a layered approach to achieve the best protection. To architect the most resilient cyber security, organizations should install separate modems, firewalls, and wireless access points. Each of these devices have their own cyber security capabilities. The collective effect of this multi-layer approach is a much higher level of protection than depending on a single multi-function device.

There were many other pointers, including:

Use two different browsers; one for general use and one for more secure financial transactions

Wireless communications, when implemented properly, is more secure than wireline

Use a Password Manager; Don’t rely on your browser to automatically insert passwords

Implementing the Professor’s recommendations will reduce exposure by 80% but you still need proper data backup. The only protection against Ransomware is to have adequate backup

Thanks to Mark Stankiewicz and the team from the Office of Workforce Competitiveness at the Connecticut Department of Labor for putting this great seminar together. The only problem with the event was that there was not enough time to cover all the material Professor Elhadad had prepared and to answer the many questions from the audience, even after 3 hours!

The good news is Mark said they will look into scheduling a follow up session. Keep your eyes open for that as it will certainly be worth attending.